Time for everyone to recognize the great gift of the women's movement: Everyone needs to buckle down, work hard, and follow rules.

No wonder they had to drop the word "liberation" from "women's liberation movement." Who could have imagined, circa 1970, that what we'd end up with was grim drudgery for all?

Except the guys won't play along, will they? Consider the strategies. An obvious one is to scale down, never marry, never have children, and live a circumscribed life with a not-too-challenging job, and enjoy however much sex you want via online dating services. Meanwhile, the women can work for their entire lives as hard as they worked in school, just keep going and going, shoehorn in a couple children, work harder and harder to pay for everything they need, including childcare. Work work work.

Grim!

If I were a young woman, I'd be tempted into exactly what I was tempted into when I was a young woman: a life that values beauty, love, and freedom over work. I'm thinking of the hippie movement and — a book I read in the 1970s — "Your Money Or Your Life" (which I see is "Revised and Updated for the 21st Century" — not sure what that means).

79 comments:

There are always alternatives. I work for myself, married a woman who shares my values, we treat each other with love and respect as equal partners, raising a family, have had a lot of fun along the way and are aiming for early retirement.

"... men used to be able to drop out of high school and still earn wages comparable to better-educated women, thanks to jobs in fields like manufacturing, construction and travel. That’s not the case anymore."

Obviously the author hasn't been keeping up because that hasn't been the case for almost 30 years.

The interesting thing in all this is that children are increasingly being perceived of as belonging to their mothers. Dads are out of the picture, or, even if they are, it's the mom's responsibility to take care of them, arrange their childcare, shoulder the burdens they bring, or prevent their conception/birth in the first place. Result: government must step in because women are unfairly burdened.

(Small exception: a woman who becomes pregnant due to rape. In that case, the child is the spawn of the devil and through a neat subversion of the reproductive process, 100% the rapist's child.)

Not that I'm saying this is the way real families work -- but this is the culture.

What utter bullshit from top to bottom. The reason boys are performing less well in school is because 30 or 40 years of leftist feminization of the public school system has destroyed boys ability to succeed in the system. Don't point your finger at Billy and say bang or you're suspended. This is not just my opinion, but the opinion of several educators

I tried to read your money or your life but something about it turned me off. Was it really political? I think that might have been it.

I agree with the general idea of valuing life over money, or maybe I just think being happy with what you have (and not obsessing over what everyone else has that you don't) is the key to peace. That doesn't mean you have to run off and join a commune.

Obviously the author hasn't been keeping up because that hasn't been the case for almost 30 years.

Eh, my brother makes pretty good money driving a truck. He works a lot of hours, though.

No. I never imagined the govt helping me out. I saw the govt as the enemy myself, but I know there were hippies who made it a thing to get food stamps and so forth, to be rip-off artists and parasites.

I replayed the Clarence Thomas at Harvard Law U-tube for my wife last night.

Clarence said he determined at age 30 never to work for money, but to do what he felt called to do. He also wanted to be a Priest probably because appreciated the beautiful act of Irish Nuns that had run the school in Savannah to educate a Geechee speaking black boy and get him into Holy Cross College in Indiana.

And he said that his DC circuit court of Appeals appointment included ordering new furniture, but it that took months to be delivered. And that the day it came in Bush nominated him to the Supreme Court. He really felt it was a political trick to get his furniture.

Sounds to me like beauty is very important element in the life of the mind. The Holy Spirit is reputed to be a great artist.

Should I believe this article or believe my actual experience of all the women who have said to me "Thank God I'm a woman and don't have to face the grim fate of working myself to death or being considered a waste of space if I were a man?" I think I'll go with experience.

Oh, and universal preschool? Just something else to set boys back, by moving academics earlier and earlier. In Germany, reading instruction doesn't begin until 1st grade. Young minds are sponges, yes, but is there really anything gained by early academic instruction?

What gets me is this science fiction of, "Boys have historically been trained to think that they needn’t obey rules or work hard because men used to be able to drop out of high school and still earn wages comparable to better-educated women".

Like Hell.

There may have been a time you could drop out and get a job, but it wouldn't be in any kind of skilled trade.

And, by the time I was in grade school (50s), dropping out was considered a lousy idea. You needed that high school sheepskin, if nothing else (this is why the GED became a standard in the mid-70s).

As for hard work, that's always been a given in this country. Any kid who had 4th grade American history remember John Smith telling the layabouts, "no work, no food". For most of this country's history, hard work was the key to survival and a man who wouldn't work wasn't seen as trustworthy.

“The grade gap isn’t about ability,” said Claudia Buchmann, co-author and sociology professor at Ohio State University, “it’s really more about effort and engagement in school.”

Who's to blame for restructuring K-12 away from skill sets that motivate boys? The female education establishment. And you sociologists

The other part I loved was the section, again a rework of the meme, Women lead in the production of degrees across the spectrum except in STEM. So instead of asking how we can piss away billions getting men trained as RN's, let's piss away billions figuring out how to make women the majority of STEM grads as well, then whine about why there are no college educated men... and how it's their fault, and that they think the system sucks.

These days I certainly recommend to a younger guy with any mechanical aptitude to learn a trade like plumber, auto mechanic, or electrician rather than wasting money on 4 years of college. It's not unheard of for people in those fields to make 6 figure salaries.

School is boring for boys and because they aren't girls they tune out.

The sociologist either think that that they shouldn't think of students as gendered groups “We really need schools that set high expectations, that treat students as individuals – not just as gendered groups –"

While at the same time bemoan that there aren't more girls interested in STEM type courses and that they should do something about it. "college women are much more interested in exploring different curricular areas, which may serve to lower the odds that they’ll go into STEM and other fields that have very “lockstep” focus"

Everyone should go to college and if you don't and get a job in construction or other 'manly' occupations that you are not obeying the rules and not working hard

Or in shorter terms, and as already pointed out.......boys bad....girls good.

Note: being in the 'trades' can be quite lucrative. I had clients who went to work in the heavy equipment maintenance field in Montana a few years ago and they were pulling down over 100 to 150 K a year. Not too bad for a lazy bad boy who didn't obey the rules.

"And the education system may be to blame. Women who attend high schools that greatly emphasize STEM subjects have much more interest in those majors in college, Cohen explained. “I would love to see that suggestion get more traction before we approach the idea of kids losing steam in college in America."

Yeah.

It's more important to get women into STEM majors in college than it is to get all kids (i.e., males) through college.

Why are so many professors made stupid by gender/race/sexual orientation ideologies?

I completely bought into the whole hippie surfer world traveler thing. Became a school teacher to take advantage of the 180 workday year with health insurance and a defined retirement. 180 days I sorta' play the Man's Game (and attempt to make the world a better place) and the the other 180 days are mine. Getting ready to move to Ecuador with the girlfriend in retirement. A place in the mountains and a place on the beach to surf my brains loose. Luxury living with a cook, gardner and a maid with plenty of dinero left over. Lovin' life.

And I banged a whole bunch of beautiful, happening, smart, intelligent women on my way to where I am now (with the best woman ever). A special shout out ot all the Women's Liberationists from back in the day. Thanks Girls. You helped make my life absolutely awesome.

Now you know that's not really true. You just found or created work that included those. I believe most people can't be happy without plenty of work. It's inhuman. A genetic mutation long ago that gave us an addiction to work is what separated us from the other primates. Watch chimps or gorillas, and you'll see simply lazy humans. They don't even bother to shave. Imagine them addicted to work and you can see them building cities in no time. We aren't much smarter, just more neurotic.

"think that they needn’t obey rules or work hard because men used to be able to drop out of high school and still earn wages..."

As if that was a lazy, complacent thing to do!

Schools used to provide a basic education that was good enough that you could leave after 8th grade and do well. You still worked hard and you learned along the way. It's not as if all the extra time in school now is transforming everyone into intellectuals.

They begin with a provably false premise, which suggests that their rant can be safely ignored. Men and boys are not generally directed to act with a behavior different from women and girls. They are confusing circumstance (and individual dignity) and a premeditated act.

This is the same mistake made by human and civil rights activists who extrapolate from the individual to the collective in order to sustain their business model.

The author cannot obfuscate their condescension and envy of lower class people, but particularly men. I wonder if they are of the class which profits from manufacturing moved to places with lower environmental and labor standards. Do they support displacing American citizens, or perhaps just men, through excessive legal immigration and unmeasured illegal immigration. They certainly believe that money "grows on trees" and that wealth is produced with a stroke of a pen.

I wonder what they think about the fastest growing, non-dischargeable consumer debt: student loans. They can exploit good intentions while blowing a bubble, then exploit good intentions when offering relief. That's quite a scam being run by the opportunistic class.

Article: ...men used to be able to drop out of high school and still earn wages comparable to better-educated women, thanks to jobs in fields like manufacturing, construction and travel.

Substitute used to have to and the writer might have a point. Diplomas and degrees were luxuries -- not assumptions-- for my parents' generation, especially for the farmers and millworkers on Mom's side. And "jobs in travel" meant either tours of duty in Korea or Vietnam or transhipping coal from the switchyards in Ambridge to the J&L mill in Aliquippa.

The "rules" for them were:

*Put food on the table. and *Keep a roof over their heads. *Show up on time for their shifts/chores. *Stay out of jail (County's Chief Probation Officer was an elder close relative).

Those lucky enough to go to college either were among the few who had parents who could afford it for them or else served in uniform to either receive an ROTC scholarship or qualify for the GI Bill.

think that they needn’t obey rules or work hard because men used to be able to drop out of high school and still earn wages...

As if that was a lazy, complacent thing to do!

Schools used to provide a basic education that was good enough that you could leave after 8th grade and do well. You still worked hard and you learned along the way. It's not as if all the extra time in school now is transforming everyone into intellectuals.

Excellent point and, before WWII, it was even better.

When recruiting for the 1st Special Service Force (an elite airborne/mechanized unit) during WWII, the Army only thought a 3rd grade education was necessary.

There is something else that needs to be addressed. What is the academic background of pioneers and entrepreneurs. Traditionally, this class of individuals would not be described as strictly intellectual. In fact, they would be looked down upon by the intellectual elite.

A society which hopes to enjoy positive growth through economic development requires men and women who will accept the inherent risk of new enterprises. This is not generally a trait possessed by intellectuals. That class of individuals is typically a well educated worker who prefers the luxury and comfort of the "ivory towers."

Anyway, this is a moot point. The work described by this author has either been outsourced to places with lower environmental and labor standards, or insourced to a large and growing illegal population, where the real costs of their employment are shifted to the taxpayer through redistributive change and risk programs, including: Medicaid, public education, welfare, etc.

"Schools used to provide a basic education that was good enough that you could leave after 8th grade and do well. You still worked hard and you learned along the way. It's not as if all the extra time in school now is transforming everyone into intellectuals."

My 81 year friend who I referenced in another post never finished school and probably only has about an 8th grade education but has a farm worth over a million dollars and a 2.5 million net worth after have having given his children a farm split between them where they built their nice homes.

Fact is, there will always be a high demand for and therefore well-compensated workers who can create and repair desirable and useful things with their hands. The more skill and aesthetics, the better the compensation. The more heavy lifting lifting or nasty grunt work, the better the compensation.

This whole proposition would've been better stated if "only a HS diploma," had been the standard rather than dropout. The perils of dropping out and going through life without a diploma have long been warned against. In my cohort (late 60s) it was always losers and those with the lowest of the lowest self esteem. The only exception being those rare cases of a one in a million opportunity too good to pass up (music, show biz, etc). Nowadays it is a far more diverse lot. But in those days where I grew up, many guys --most guys-- upon HS graduation forsook going to college and did other things, like the military, or blue collar work.

Yes, that's true. However, in America, the great social experiment does not require accountability, and actually subsidizes dysfunctional and otherwise unproductive behavior. The communists were not nearly so opportunistic.

Perhaps a collective (i.e. marginalization of individuals) ideology cannot be realized outside of a totalitarian state. The inconsistent progress realized in America has ensured we enjoy the worst of two competing philosophies.

"Boys have historically been trained to think that they needn’t obey rules or work hard because..."

How do you train a boy to be a fuck-up?

This is the single most incredibly stupid and insulting statement I can recall. This is the kind of lazy thinking that no doubt permeates every aspect of the social sciences now that they've been totally subsumed by feminist "scholarship" and the sheer weight of the number of women students. The trickle down turned tsunami effect of ignorant assumptions such as this have laid waste to the masculine moral code. And now the piper need be paid. A college education is now basically worthless because academia has created employment bubbles in nearly useless disciplines like social work.

Or maybe it's all because men have been drinking estrogen for 40 years in recycled women's piss.

"Except the guys won't play along, will they? Consider the strategies. An obvious one is to scale down, never marry, never have children, and live a circumscribed life with a not-too-challenging job. . ."

Why would such a strategy necessarily make one's life circumscribed?

I have had definite intellectual interests since my teens that could not be parlayed into a paying job unless I got a PhD first, which I wasn't willing to do, since I couldn't even make myself go for an undergraduate degree because high school sucked. Plus no one in my family had gone to college, so there wasn't that attitude that you're destined to be a FAILURE in life if you don't. I took various jobs to live on and pursued what truly engaged my interest on my own time. And this worked out well for many years.

But eventually the day work became so draining that I lacked the energy to engage in my preferred *work* at night. Instead I'd come home and proceed to get fucked up. One day I said to myself: you're going to turn around and be 65 years old and kick your own ass for wasting your life. So I spent a few years trying to arrange things so I could quit work-work and study full-time, so I could be actually engaged in what I'm doing and be glad to get up in the morning instead of dragging my ass out of bed.

I realize everyone who might like to do something similar can't, for numerous, often intractable reasons, and I admit luck had a lot to do with my eventual success in this endeavor. But it did involve a conscious decision on my part to live with minimal outings and stuff. I'm way scaled down, deliberately, but circumscribed? So I can't throw money around any more. I have more control over my time and what I put my effort into than I could have imagined possible when I was working at a job. And it's fun.

The women's movement has little to do with the problem men, and women, face in today's job market. More like free-market capitalism that has a global reach and is propelled by sophisticated technology, which has replaced the foundry job I took right after high school. Today you best know how to use Sky Drive and Matt Lab, and be able to write basic code, and be ready to compete with our global neighbors.

"Female dominance in higher education has resulted in fewer men who meet their standards. Educated women prefer men at or above their educational and financial level. Though more women are settling than before (often unhappily), that preference remains quite strong and is likely a product of innate female hypergamy. Women, more often than not, want to date up.

When women increased their numbers in college and in the workplace, society did not create more jobs for them. Women simply took a larger share of what was available, which resulted in the displacement of men. This means fewer men with the means to satisfy these females’ requirements for a good husband/provider down the road, and more men who don’t come close to her socio-economic level and frankly couldn’t give a f*** about it."

. More like free-market capitalism that has a global reach and is propelled by sophisticated technology, which has replaced the foundry job I took right after high school. Today you best know how to use Sky Drive and Matt Lab, and be able to write basic code, and be ready to compete with our global neighbors.

"Boys have historically been trained to think that they needn’t obey rules or work hard because..."

"... men used to be able to drop out of high school and still earn wages comparable to better-educated women, thanks to jobs in fields like manufacturing, construction and travel. That’s not the case anymore."

Who comes up with this bullshit? Historically, all I heard was work hard and follow the rules. That's what my kids hear, sons and daughters. All that really matters is what the generation of today is hearing. Historically, males heard a lot more "plant the crops" and "kill some meat" than go work in a factory.

Historically, what you're seeing now is an edcuational system hostile towards males and maleness. And, they blame the males rather than look at their own bigotry and hatefulness.

roesch/voltaire said...The women's movement has little to do with the problem men, and women, face in today's job market. More like free-market capitalism that has a global reach and is propelled by sophisticated technology, which has replaced the foundry job I took right after high school. Today you best know how to use Sky Drive and Matt Lab, and be able to write basic code, and be ready to compete with our global neighbors.

men used to be able to drop out of high school and still earn wages comparable to better-educated women, thanks to jobs in fields like manufacturing, construction and travel. That’s not the case anymore."

Yeah, this is largely bullshit, depending upon the time frame. In the fifties through the seventies, college was a luxury most families simply could not afford. It was a blessing that the factory economy was so robust to support so many lazy men.

Free markets are the only reason the American blue collar worker every had it good in the first place.

The golden age of blue-collar labor came when we were exporting products to countries that had suffered setbacks during WW2. Suppose those countries had adopted the "they're takin' our jerbs!" mentality of the folks who rail against free markets? Those lucrative factory jobs would have disappeared like a puff of smoke. They existed solely because customers in *other* countries were free to make purchases from us.

International trade is still a significant part of our economy. Anyone who thinks that 20% of the world's economy can *gain* by telling 80% of the world's economy to go fuck itself isn't thinking rationally.

I love the oxymoron of "Boys have historically been trained to think that they needn't obey rules..."

The authors of the book actually wrote that? Deliberately?

There are a number of reasons why more women are in college. These reasons include the disappearance of traditional non-degreed women's jobs like being a secretary, typist, or filing clerk, combined with the huge growth in degree-requring women's jobs like teaching, counseling, nursing.

As for overall performance, it's easier to 'perform well' in these non-competetive degrees as compared to the more traditionally male highly competetive degrees in science and engineering.

"Boys have historically been trained to think that they needn’t obey rules or work hard"

Define "historically." I'm 65 years old, and the message I got when I was a child was that I darn well better work hard to get good grades. And as to obeying rules, my father told me that, although not everybody can make an "A" in every subject, any fool can get an "A" in conduct and that I had best do so. These people have no idea what was the case historically.

Today you best know how to use Sky Drive and Matt Lab, and be able to write basic code, and be ready to compete with our global neighbors.

You can't outsource your plumber :-)

The numbers of young men who are going into occupations that don't require a 4 year college degree are less and less. This is creating a scarcity in skilled occupations like. Diesel mechanics, welders, auto mechanics, electricians, plumbers, Hvac technicians....and many other necessary hands on jobs.

Unfortunately, there is a flood of illegal aliens who are also ready and willing to get their hands dirty and willing to undercut the wages of legal citizens, willing to work under the table,willing to skirt all of the expensive legalities such as insurance, licensing. Competition is one thing.....unfair, breaking of the law is another.

"men used to be able to drop out of high school and" get their draft notice. Professor Althouse forgot. Women weren't eligible for all the benefits of the patriarchy, including the chance to die in exotic places for about a hundred bucks a month. The search for cosmic justice continues...